The One Where Monica Moves to the City
by Stephanie C
Summary: Monica is moving into her Nana's apartment in the city. Chandler, Ross and Carol help her move.One shot story. Please read part 2 in the series, TOW Phoebe Meets Monica.


_Author's note: This is the first fan fiction story in a series of FRIENDS prequels. The time is spring, 1990. Monica is 20 and is a month away from graduating from culinary school. She lives with her parents in Long Island. Ross, Chandler, and Carol are juniors and dorm at school in Manhattan._

_Enjoy!_

The One Where Monica Moves to the City

Monica is in the kitchen making lasagna for Advanced Italian Cooking class at the Culinary School. She was making sure her secret ingredient would taste good and seeing how fast she could make it so that in class on Monday she could be number one in her class.

Judy was on the phone with her mom, Althea. Monica was stirring the sauce and listening to her mom's side of the conversation.

"Why do you want to move out of the city? You love the city and your apartment is rent controlled. Why would you give that up?" Judy paused and then said, "Monica could move into your apartment. --Of course she would love it. It's closer to school and she could see Ross and Carol more often. She might even meet a nice guy."

Monica rolled her eyes. Her mom was always on her back to find a boyfriend. She thought how cool it would be to live in the city, living by her own rules. She already started mentally decorating her nana's apartment.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, mom. Bye." Judy stood up to hang up the phone. Monica turned around and asked, "Why does Nana want to move?"

"She's was complaining that it's to noisy, all her friends are gone or moved away, it's too big a place to clean. Also a 5-floor walk up isn't good for her hip. She's already made arrangements to move to Florida. She'll stay with Aunt Iris till she finds a place." Judy responded.

"Mom, I would love to live in the city, but how will I be able to afford it? My part time job at Gino's Pasta House won't cover the rent let alone utilities and everything else."

"We'll figure all that out when your father gets home from racket ball. OH, Monica the sauce is going to overflow!"

Monica turned and shut off the stove. "Mom, it is not going to overflow. I know what I'm doing." Judy turned and as she left the kitchen she said, "I was just making sure you weren't going to 'pull a Monica'." Monica glared at her and shouted, "You promised you would never use that expression again!"

Monica put the lasagna in the oven and cleaned the kitchen. She grabbed the cordless phone from the base in the living room. Before she dialed Rachel's number she wiped down the phone with a wet cloth. Rachel was going to school in Long Island and living in a sorority house. Although they didn't hang out or speak as much as they used to, Monica just had to call Rachel to tell her the news. Monica sat on the sofa and waited for Rachel to pick up. After five rings Rachel answered.

"Rach, guess what! I-"

"You lost those five pounds you gained during the winter?" Rachel guessed.

"I never gained five pounds! My Nana is moving to Florida and I'll be subletting her apartment. My own apartment! Can you believe it?"

"That's so cool, Mon! Ok, so listen to what happened to me today. I went with my sister, Jill, to the orthodontist, she was getting fit for a retainer, and I met the cutest doctor. His name is Barry and he just started working at the office and we are going mini-golfing tomorrow night." Rachel rambled excitedly.

"Sounds like fun. We all know how you love those doctors."

Monica and Rachel continued talking till the battery died on Monica's phone and they had to say goodbye. Buy that time the oven timer had gone off just in time for dinner.

About a month later during Monica's spring break she moved into her nana's apartment on Bedford and Grove. Apartment 20 was still under Althea's name and Monica would be subletting it from her. Althea had already moved to Florida and Monica had already repainted the place purple and her new room pink. Ross, Chandler and Carol were helping Monica move in on a sunny, warm April day. Chandler and Ross were carrying a mattress up the stairs. Ross was wearing a t-shirt that said "Geology Rocks!" Chandler was wearing a long sleeve button down shirt with a sweater vest and sweating like crazy. Chandler said to Ross, "Could I _be_ wearing anymore clothes? Couldn't Monica or your parents hire movers?" Ross replied, "Now that Monica is living on her own she wants to be independent and she only had enough money to hire a moving truck. But, hey if you want to change I got a t-shirt in Carol's car."

"Is it another 'Geology Rocks!' shirt?" Chandler said sarcastically, mocking Ross.

"No it says 'Dinosaur Dude!' " Ross said with a smile.

Five minutes later Chandler walked into the apartment carrying a pink shaded lamp and wearing Ross's "Dinosaur Dude!" t-shirt. Carol walked in behind him carrying a 27-inch television and she set it down in the living room. Chandler said to Carol, "I can't believe you carried that heavy TV up five flights of stairs all by yourself. This lamp alone was a workout." Carol then opened the fridge, took out a beer and drank it right out of the can. "Do you think just because I am a woman that I can't carry a TV up five flights?"

"No-no-no-no. that's not what I meant." Chandler stumbled and tried to think of a joke. Carol rolled her eyes, put her beer down and went back downstairs to get a box from the moving truck.

Later, Chandler and Monica came up the stairs carrying boxes labeled "cook books". A strange looking man wearing a brown robe was lurking outside Monica's apartment. His hair was white and uncombed and he had an old man smell. Monica asked, "Can I help you?"

"Where's Althea?"

"Ummm- she moved out. I'm her granddaughter Monica. I'm moving in. And you are?"

"I'm Mr. Heckles. I live downstairs. I didn't know Althea was moving. You think she would have told me since I am her boyfriend."

"You are not my Nana's boyfriend."

"I could be her boyfriend!" Mr. Heckles snapped back. He then went up the small step, turned and said, "Try to keep the noise down. My kittens are sleeping."

After he left Monica and Chandler gave each other a "he's crazy" look. Chandler said, "Do you think we should call the nice men with straight jackets?"

After a long day of moving furniture and boxes Monica, Chandler, Ross and Carol ordered take out. After dinner when everyone left Monica spent the rest of the night getting a head start on the unpacking and cleaning. It was a little scary to be on her own and she wasn't used to the silence in her new home. She put on some music and danced as she swept the kitchen floor. She was excited to be living in her own apartment and new she was growing up. She was excited to see what the future held for her.

The next morning on Monica's way out to the grocery store, she met her neighbor across the hall. He was a tall, handsome man named Kip on his way out to the gym. He smiled and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Kip. You must be Althea's granddaughter, Monica." Monica couldn't help but check Kip out. She was very happy she moved to the city.


End file.
